by Jeff Sproul
"Yeah, but there are still a few out there that are still pain free," said Aaron.
Riley started glancing back and forth between the two players, but continued to read over his own status screen.
"Sure, but those only exist off of the Celenion Framework," Chrono countered. "And those make up less than ten percent of the entire player base worldwide. And Celenion is only losing more ground, month to month."
"Maybe I should focus on luck a little more," Riley murmured to himself, letting the other two discuss the more technical matters of the game. Which, to be fair, Riley cared about, but…well, he never found himself super interested. He started to drone the other two out but before long, he heard Aaron say his name.
"Riley?" Aaron asked. "You listening?"
"Hmm?" Riley's head lifted up, glancing between the two screens and then to Aaron's. "What's up?"
"I asked how the Invisirover was. Looks a little cramped in there."
Riley shifted his arms and legs around a little, then shrugged. "Ah, well, besides the name being stupid, it's a little…snug, I guess. But it's fine. It drives pretty smooth, I guess. I gotta say, it might take longer to get somewhere, but if I'm not in a hurry, I'd take this any day to portaling around."
"Don't blame me for the name," Aaron grumbled. "I just crafted it to spec. I thought you said teleporting wasn't as bad anymore?"
"Well, I've been teleporting from time to time, not portaling. There's a difference, apparently. So yeah, I dunno about portaling. But teleporting isn't…so bad."
"Why didn't you teleport to the op site?" asked Aaron with a furrowed brow.
"Because we're out of poryte crystals," Chrono sighed. "So until we get a teleporter set up at that location, we have no access. Not to mention, it's an unknown site. We're trying to seize it."
"Mustn't be too valuable though, if I'm the only one heading out there," said Riley.
"You're not the only…thing, that's going to be out there, though," said Chrono. "You brought the supply box, right?"
"Yeah, it's in the back. Literally no room for anything else back there," he grumbled. "But it's useless if I encounter enemies out there."
"You're a level one-hundred, with power stealing capabilities. Your mobility is adequate, and it's not like anyone can see you coming in that invisible rover."
"Yeah, I'll have the advantage of surprise, but that's it," said Riley. "If there's two or three players out there of a level anywhere close to mine, or powers that work really well against me, I'm screwed."
"No reason to assign anyone else to the mission until we know," said Chrono. "Not to mention, there's no one currently available and we need that place scouted and claimed if possible. The report we got from the drone flyby was that it might have a small amount of poryte mixed in with other much-needed resources. We're losing ground in the city. So we need everything we can get."
"Well, maybe if Taurus and his Pale Ones could hold their assigned sectors, we wouldn't be scrambling for so much," Riley murmured.
"Yeah, and if they still had a certain Goliath, we could be going on the offensive a lot more."
Riley rolled his eyes. "Oh come on. The Pale Ones wouldn't even be part of The Crimson Alliance if Goliath was still in charge. I did this alliance a favor when we took him out."
"When I took him out," Aaron corrected, with a smirk across his lips.
"I seem to recall it being a team effort," Riley countered, glaring at his friend.
"If you say so," Aaron said dismissively.
Riley still had his status screen up. From time to time, he'd glance it over, trying to ponder over portions of it.
"So am I going to have enough Command Potential to manage things while I'm there?" Riley asked. "I tried pumping some points into it, to prepare for the expansion, but is it going to be enough?"
"Were you not listening when I give you the rundown before you left base?" Chrono grumbled.
"You said a lot of stuff, and I'm able to talk to you now. I didn't think it'd be a huge problem to ask," Riley said with a shrug.
"Riiight," Chrono sighed. "Like I said earlier, if you have to make troops with the printer on-site in order to seize the facility, you're only going to be able to support a few by yourself. You don't have a lot of resources in that box. You need to get the base running with some of the crystals you brought. Once it's running, its excavator should be gathering enough to keep it running. Once the place is powered, it initializes a command module that can support a greater number of troops in the vicinity. More than what your leadership skill allows you to control nearby. So if you want reinforcements, get the place running and it'll have everything you need."
"So, get it running and then I can come home," Riley simplified.
"Uhh, yeah…something like that," Chrono murmured. "We'll play it by ear."
"It's crazy how much stuff is already all over the place, even out in the more uninhabited areas," said Riley.
"Well, three weeks ago they patched in all the schematics and stuff," said Aaron. "So people had time to plan what they could make. So you had individuals, groups and guilds, all planning two weeks in advance. Then, when the update went live last week, everyone made a mad dash for stuff."
"Sounds kinda fast to me," said Riley. "Like, how did this location go dark? Should I be worried?"
"Coulda been anything," said Aaron. "My guild has sent out a few outpost-building expeditions. We lost one of them on the third day. Anything can happen out there. It only takes about an hour to get a facility up and running if you have the materials. Takes longer to upgrade it and improve it. But if that facility went up on day one, and was then attacked by players or even local monster NPCs, then it's likely that the guild or player that built it might be spread too thin to go back and manage it. Or, they could've been killed protecting it. Lots of solo players had trouble holding good spots. You spend everything you have trying to build one installation, only to come up short on defenses, and the local monsters or players end up demolishing it or seizing it. For all we know, the original owner might be selling the info to its location if they died. Or hell, there could be a whole caravan of troops heading for it right now to reclaim it."
"Our surveillance of the area didn't spot anything in the immediate vicinity," said Chrono. "But we obviously can't survey the huge amounts of territory around this one place."
"I'm feeling very confident and safe on this mission," Riley spoke up. "Driving out all alone. Up against an entire dark installation we know nothing about."
"We know that there was nothing bad walking around…from an aerial view…about three hours ago," Chrono said, turning his sharp-featured head. "But I'm sure you'll be fine."
"Was I picked for this mission because I wrecked your initial base, back when Hellions came out?" Riley asked, his eyes narrowed as he glanced over to Chrono's screen.
"Hey, it wasn't just you that screwed me over back then. Let's see…who all was it," Chrono tapped his chin with a pointed digit. "You, Laura, Amber Impaler. Hmm, that's who was there at first, according to the feed I managed to record as my base died."
"To be fair, there was another guy, Shell, but he ditched us," said Riley.
"Don't know anything about a Shell," Chrono pointed out. "But some of your other friends showed up. Carla…Parviz. Some other guy that was back in the tunnel, and then of course, Brenda."
"Yeah…" Riley said, thinking back to one of the last times he'd seen Todd. To this day, he still didn't know what Erica had done after she had left the game due to Todd's death. Did you know about Brenda and our guild, back when that happened?" asked Riley.
"Don't you remember? It wasn't that long ago," said Chrono. "Your guild joined The Crimson Alliance before The Royals did. Even if it was by only a day. After your attack on my lair, I joined up with The Royals," said Chrono. "It was only after Sage's invasion push on Gargantuan City that events led to me taking over The Royals and joining up with Sage. And then when you killed Goliath, Taurus took lead
of The Pale Ones again. And then they joined up with Crimson Alliance as well. So yeah, don't blame any of us newcomers for your distrust of Brenda."
Riley reached up and scratched the side of his head. "It's not that I distrust her, I was just curious. I know full-well that she's only loyal to her brother, Sage, at this point. But she's still a part of The Bunker Brawlers. It's not like she deleted her character and made one to join his clan. Hellions can only create clans and paragons can only make guilds. So there's no crossover there, but as Sage and I found, we are able to form an alliance made up of paragons and hellions."
"Yeah. Never thought I'd be running a small guild that's part of a hellion-centric alliance," said Aaron with a sigh as he leaned back on whatever chair he was sitting on. "This game has gotten pretty crazy. Hellions and paragons working together. Building cities and bases. Fighting for resources. What a time to be alive."
"It's not like being a hellion makes us evil," Chrono countered. "We're all players, just like any of you. We just look more monstrous. Doesn't make us bad. You paragons were killing each other and fighting over loot and gear long before hellions ever arrived on the scene. So don't go making us sound like some sort of bad guy. I feel like I shouldn't even have to have this conversation with you two, of all people. Especially you, Arbiter.”
Aaron held his hands up defensively as Chrono used his proper in-game title. "Hey, I didn't mean it like that. I just think it's interesting that the game was set up in such a way for there to be two opposing factions, and…well, thanks to Sage and The Bunker Brawlers and no small part to Riley, all of that has been turned upside down. Even other alliances have taken the cue and followed suit, but none to the infamy of Crimson Alliance, of course."
It was hard to determine if Chrono was squinting, due to his hellion features.
Riley decided to keep quiet as he dispersed his status screen. He reached out and started tapping at the little terminal-like display within the vehicle. It was currently set to autopilot, since the drone that Chrono had sent earlier had logged the coordinates of the destination. According to the readout on the display, he was almost there.
"Looks like I'm going to arrive soon so I'll have to use the cell if I want to talk to anyone inside," said Riley as he reached under the display and pulled out a small wheel so that he could take manual control of the vehicle.
"How's the power on the rover?" Aaron asked. "You'll have to keep it running, else the signal from your cell won't be strong enough to reach base."
"He's right," said Chrono. "You're going to have to hide it and keep it invisible or something. Unless you can find a safe place for it and leave it in passive mode."
Riley looked to the power readout on the vehicle. "Hmm, looks like I'm at twenty percent." Riley blinked a few times and thought for a moment. "Wait, it took eighty percent of my power to get out here? How was I supposed to come back safely?" His tone rose in frustration.
"Calm down," Chrono sighed. "I swear, you non-management types are the worst. All you want to do is kill things and be provided for. How have you put up with him for this long, Arbiter?"
"He grows on you," said Aaron with a slow smile. "He's definitely an acquired taste."
"I'm right here," Riley murmured. "And you still haven't answered the question."
Chrono sighed, shaking his head. "The container you brought has fuel to power the rover. It's the same fuel you're going to need once you get into that base. Did you even check the container?"
"No, I assumed you put everything that I'd need in there."
Chrono's hand found his face as he face-palmed. "Then why would you think that I—" He lifted his head up and shook it. "Look, you use the 'baz rods' to fuel the vehicle. They get consumed as they're used. Those same baz rods are your mobile high-power source for powering any consoles you come across, like a printer. Or…a turret, or anything else that you might want to use while it's not being controlled by the command module of the base."
"I thought you were talking about poryte earlier?" said Riley.
"I'm not sure why I bothered explaining any of this earlier," said Chrono. "You use poryte crystals for things like teleporting. Or anything that requires a hard burst of energy in a very short amount of time. Like a railgun or whatever. You use baz rods for powering things over an hour or so. Think of poryte as an extreme-capacity battery for a very short burst. Whereas baz rods are meant for keeping something powered over a few hours."
"Oh, right," said Riley. "The baz rods are orange and the poryte crystals are blue and a little more jagged."
"If that helps you remember what they're used for, then…by all means, they're orange and blue," Chrono grumbled..
Riley tapped at the terminal in front of him and changed the top portion of the rover to be transparent, so that he could see out of it and get a good look at his surroundings. The black covering of the vehicle shifted and went transparent, showing that the area was still dark, but there were some vestiges of light ebbing up from the horizon, showing that the sun should be up in about an hour, give or take. Luckily for Riley, the vehicle would remain invisible, even if he was able to see outside of it now. The 'cloak' that the rover had was similar in function to a 'cloak of concealment,' which was an item that players generally used if they wanted to remain hidden. But an item of that nature was more common and rudimentary. The rover was leaps and bounds above it, but also, much more expensive.
Riley leaned forward—as much as he could—to look into the distance. There was a faint outline of what Riley could only describe as a small outpost. It was surrounded by a wall, with a few buildings poking out from the top. It was difficult to make anything else out of it, since it was still pretty dark out.
"I can see the facility," said Riley. "So, if things take a turn for the worse, I can use those rods to refuel the rover and head right back?"
"That was the plan we discussed," said Chrono.
"Well, I'll let you get to it," said Aaron. "If you end up dying out there, we can head to SHO Cafe for some food. I'll buy." Aaron's face disappeared from the screen a moment later, before Riley had an opportunity to respond.
Riley shook his head but smiled nonetheless.
"SHO…cafe?" Chrono asked, as his video feed was still live.
"Yeah, it's this place near where we both live," said Riley. "It uh…actually just changed its name because of that new game."
"Supreme Hunter Online?" Chrono asked. "The battle royale game where a bunch of people battle it out to the last man, over and over again?"
"Yeah, that's the one," said Riley. "It used to be called Paragon Cafe, but it keeps changing its name every time a new game comes out and gets really popular. At least in our area. I don't think Sigil Online was as popular in other countries, but it was here."
"A cafe that renames itself after popular games. Weird," Chrono remarked. "So you both live pretty close then?"
Riley shrugged. "Yeah, pretty close. It's a big city, but we both live on kinda the outskirts of it, more or less."
"I see," Chrono murmured. "How far are you from the site?"
Riley had been looking outside the vehicle the whole time, watching the installation get closer and closer. "Maybe another minute out," he said.
"Alright. Any last questions? Anything you forgot?"
Riley looked up into the night sky, pondering. "Can't think of anything."
"Fantastic. Well, good luck then. Get us a new resource outpost." With that, the feed went dark and Chrono's face was gone, leaving Riley even more alone in the vehicle.
"Right," Riley murmured. "I'm on it…will do." He reached up and scratched at the side of his head as the rover sped along relatively quietly. It was likely that if someone was outside the vehicle, they might be able to hear it coming or even see dust or tracks being left from its small treads. But the vehicle also had a proximity sensor, so if anyone got within ten feet of it, Riley would know, via a little alert message in his vision.
As the rover neared the outer
wall, Riley disabled autopilot and took over manual control. He circled the facility in its entirety. He wanted to get a good idea for how large it really was, and how much ground he'd really need to cover once he was inside. It was made up of five buildings. There was a main structure in the center where he was sure that the command module would probably be. There were four other structures around it, whose purposes were unknown. One might be the extractor, while another could've been storage. The other two? He couldn't remember what Chrono had said they might contain. They could all be storage, except for the extractor.
After he circled the full extent of the compound, he slowed his vehicle to a stop. The whole area was nothing but dirt, hills, smaller mountains in the distance and just a whole bunch of nothing. There was almost no plant life to speak of. No trees, no grass. It wasn't the best-looking landscape, if you were into that sort of thing.
Essentially, there was no place for him to hide the vehicle, so he'd have to keep it in active mode until he got the site running.
He tapped at the vehicle's interface display and checked his power gauge. The vehicle was sitting at 19% power. So he'd have to at least save a single rod until he knew if he'd be able to get the compound running under his command.
He initiated a localized scan from the vehicle. This would send out a soundless and invisible ping to check the area around him for…anything.
He waited for the scan to finish, which only took about ten seconds. Once complete, he saw a readout of the surrounding area that the vehicle had scanned.
Life forms: 1
Which was himself.
There was a visual of the area, which was just the vehicle against a tall metal wall. Apparently, the ping didn't penetrate the wall at all. So, that had been useless. He was also pretty sure that if a life form was on the other side of the wall, then that would've been missed as well.
He shook his head. So much for the 'bonus features' that the rover had.
He took one last look around, glancing to see if there was anything around him. But it was still very dark and hadn't lightened in the past couple minutes. He looked up at the wall, which was of impenetrable gray-black metal.